alphaLearningLtd

I am a Flash developer specialising in educational apps, especially for music and mathematics. My first examples are for ipad/iphone, but Android versions are coming out soon.

There are links below to the apps in the Apple App Store, I won't be selling them any other way. You can put feedback there as well.

If you need to get in touch with me, there's a clue at the bottom of the page.

FlashChords

FlashChords was written for myself, to help me learn jazz scales. It grew into a fully-fledged app.

FlashChords is a flashcard program for guitarists and horn players to practice jazz scales.

Cards are created at random from a list of chord types and root notes, and are shown consecutively with a metronome and backing track. The user plays along with the cards, either reading the scale or playing it from memory. The key can be transposed to suit Bb and Eb instruments.

The goal for FlashChords is to supply a practice tool with as much versatility as possible, so the user can decide how best to run it.
Any given card can be repeated indefinitely, the speed can be altered, and the cards can be halted or restarted during play. A new set of cards of any number up to 99 can be started at any time.

The cards show the chord symbol, eg C7#9, for a four-measure time period, while a drum track, piano chord, and notes of the scale which best fits the chord are played. The notes are shown on a stave, and a text description of the scale and the formula for finding it is also shown.

There are settings for choosing which chord symbols are used, which notes of the chromatic scale are used as roots of the chords, whether the chord notes are shown, or the scale notes, or the description.

The sounds can be turned off separately: you can have drums on/off, chords on/off, scale on/off, allowing users to have whatever combination suits their stage of development.

FlashChords is designed primarily for practicing jazz scales, but simpler scales are included for plain triads, and advanced scales are used for altered chords.

Perfect Pitch Trainer

Again, this was written for myself, to help me develop my ear. I bought a course on Perfect Pitch from a well-known musician, and I needed someone to play the notes for me.

This is designed to assist the skill of listening to the particular quality of a note to determine its pitch from the sound alone.
The user is played a note from a 4-octave range, and must try to identify it by listening to its audio quality, or color. For example, F# has an edgier sound than Eb. Each note can be placed in a spectrum similar to a color wheel, repeating each octave. Over time, you can learn to distinguish these. It is like a vowel sound, but very subtle.
This is how people with perfect pitch can tell the name of a note just by hearing it once.
Filters for the range include choice of octave(s), whether to use a diminished chord, and the root of the chord.
A choice of 2 instruments is given.
There are training modes to help, including showing note name, associated position on a color wheel, last note played, and last 8 notes played. There is a help screen.
Scores are not kept, since this a development tool and should be used in a stress-free way. Just keep listening, start with the C diminished chord in one octave until you can hear the difference between the notes, and place them on the color wheel. Then move on to more octaves, and other diminished chords. Don't try to relate the notes to each other - that's relative pitch. Take your time, it can take weeks!